Sadly, the film transitions fifteen years later: enter the nubile Cataleya (Zoe Saldana, Avatar). Her sexy drunk act gets her thrown into the clink, which we soon learn was her intention all the time. Here she channels Houdini to kill her 22nd victim. Falling to her own hubris, she leaves a calling card, an image of an orchid her father gave her before his death. Saldana has a killer face-and-bod, but her acting is Brigitte Nielsen (Point of No Return) one-dimensional, which is fine until the action slows down. Her romance with an almost catatonic Danny (French actor and former Alias star Michael Vartan) puts off such a big snore one needs a sleep-apnea mask.

Many of the over-the-top killings from director Olivier Megaton (Transporter 3) pay homage to Robert Rodriguez, and especially Machete, in their cinematography. In fact, Machete actress (and hot bod) Michelle Rodriguez would have been a better choice for the heroine, for she not only smokes up the screen, but also displays some acting chops. Nonetheless, Killer Film aficionados will enjoy this film, better than most of the pabulum presently on the big screen.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

“For some reason, I’m not like a mushy person, but I kind of want Spock and Uhura to get it on. Not in that sense. But you really want to see more of that love affair. Captain Kirk (Chris Pine) should definitely take off his shirt. Along with Sulu (John Cho). And I think Uhura should kick some ass.”

J.J., you listening?

A young woman, after witnessing her parents’ murder as a child in Bogota, grows up to be a stone-cold assassin.

Colombiana is in theaters August 26th.

Source: IGN

Zoe Saldana, Olivia Wilde, Ben Barnes, John Hannah, J.K. Simmons, and Nora Arnezeder join Bradley Cooper, Jeremy Irons, and Dennis Quaid to round out the cast of the dramatic thriller The Words. The film marks Tron Legacy writers Brian Klugman and Lee Sternthal’s directorial debut. Klugman and Sternthal also wrote the script, which went through the Sundance Screenwriter’s Lab and appeared on the Black List (the annual list of Hollywood’s best unproduced screenplays). The Words starts shooting this month in Montreal.

The Words follows a writer (Cooper) who, at the peak of his literary success, discovers the price he must pay for stealing another man’s work.

Michael Benaroya of Benaroya Pictures is producing along with Animus Films’ Jim Young, and Serena Films’ Tatiana Kelly. Untitled Entertainment’s Laura Rister is executive producing the film with Cassian Elwes under their joint venture Waterfall Media. Rister and Elwes are shepherding the project. Cinematographer Antonio Calvache (Little Children) is the Director of Photography.

We will keep you posted.

Source: IMP Awards

Alright, settle down. Here’s the plot: “Cataleya Restrepo who at age 10 sees the brutal murder of her parents by a Colombian drug lord Don Luis. Cataleya manages to escape the bullets of the assassin and reach Chicago, where her uncle lives Emilio, also a gangster.

Emilio is doing its best to remove Cataleya from the criminal life, but she is determined to become a professional killer. At 25, Cataleya has become a real killer operating on behalf of his uncle, Emilio. But her sole desire is to find Don Luis to avenge the death of her parents.”

Buying my tickets now….even if Colombiana is opening September 2011.

Source: Arrow/LR

The Film:

The Losers is caught in between a rock and a hard place. It really doesn’t know what to do, or precisely where to go. On one hand, there’s a great deal of fun with the tongue-in-cheek attitude it has, but on the other, it’s weakly plotted, something it tries hard to hide, yet with all of the “cool” slow-motion-and there’s a ton of it-we get some time to think, that this razzle-dazzle is a failed magician’s trick, in hiding its plot. You’ll juggle these back and forth, weighing the options. Does it hurt your liking of it, or will you enjoy it for what it is?

Despite feeling like a car in neutral, The Losers is B-level action entertainment at a matinee price. It’s never too early to enjoy some popcorn.

Its set-up is rudimentary. Some mercenaries go after their double-crosser after a failed attempt at killing them off. Insert plenty of bullets. Somehow, director Sylvain White takes that one sentence and spread it out for 96 minutes, through some slick editing and cinematography. It’s stylized, and while nothing new, it gives the film some edge-I hate that word, but it does-that makes the film glide, when the plot is meandering from point A to B. The film’s biggest boon, is the casting. While certainly not names (yet), the cast really keeps the film afloat. Jeffrey Dean Morgan (Watchmen) is good, Jason Patric is super slimy, but it’s Chris Evans (Fantastic Four) and Zoe Saldana (Avatar) that steal the film. Evans’ scenes are the best. He’s goofy, but yet not too-over-the-top for the film. Don’t stop believin’…Zoe is marvelous, yet again.

The Losers is based on a DC/Vertigo comic book series, which is DC’s grittier line of stories. Oddly, the film ducks away from violence, even though bullets fly by and into people. I doubt the R-rating would have added much. Even though I really enjoyed the banter between the characters, the tongue-in-cheek swagger, the editing, when you see the opening montage, then the limp sequel-ready ending, it’s an unneeded bad taste in our mouths. This reveals that the whole thing was a little stale from the beginning. A little bit more punch and The Losers would’ve been a winner.

But it does have a cool bazooka moment, so I can’t be that hard on it.

The Blu-ray:

Audio/Video:Warner issues a HD presentation that will leave you burnt by the picture and the audio, all in a good way. The picture is obviously stylized, but that doesn’t hurt the HD. Colors and brightness are purposely overdone, to give this hot, sweaty appearance to the film. Blacks are very deep and details are extremely sharp. The picture is as pristine as the definition of that word. The DTS track is really insane. I’ve experienced plenty of solid action films in HD, yet the DTS here is loud, bassy, and intense. Sounds typical for an action flick, huh? Well just make sure you take the pictures off of the walls, nobody’s home on youhttp://www.killerfilm.com/wp-admin/post.php?action=edit&post=40008r block, and a pair of ear plugs-just in case. It’s stellar.

Band of Buddies: Ops Training: In HD, the three mini-featurettes here explore the action, the stylized appearance of the said action, and the Puerto Rico shoot. Light and quick.

Zoe and the Losers: In HD, an EPK-type of interview with clips about the beautiful Zoe Saldana for 6 minutes.

Action-Style Storytelling: The creators of the comic, Andy Diggle and artist Jock talk about the book, the film, and their intentions with the stories. Great for comic fans.

A nice little Deleted Scene that should have been left in; First Look: Batman: Under the Red Hood clip; Trailer, a separate DVD and Digital Copy, and BD-Live round out the extras.

The Film: Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars

The Blu-ray: Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

What should be, when released, one of the more anticipated sequels is still just talk, although it’s interesting to here from Greenwood about the film, rather than Chris Pine, Zoe Saldana, or J.J. Abrams.

Avatar

“Colombiana” is set in Latin America and the U.S. Saldana would play a young woman who, after witnessing her parents’ murder as a child in Bogota, grows up to be a stone-cold assassin. She works for her uncle as a hitman by day, but her personal time is spent engaging in vigilante murders that she hopes will lead her to her ultimate target: the mobster responsible for her parents’ death (Heat Vision Blog).

Olivier Megaton will be directing the feature, his previous credits include the action-packed Transporter 3. Principal photography is expected to start in the late summer with no set release date at the moment. Saldana can be seen as part of the star-studded cast of the comedy Death at a Funeral, still playing in theaters. She’ll be leaping back onto the big screen once more in John Luessenhop’s Takers, being released in theaters on August 20th.

The Losers

Despite feeling like a car in neutral, The Losers is B-level action entertainment at a matinee price. It’s never too early to enjoy some popcorn.

Its set-up is rudimentary. Some mercenaries go after their double-crosser after a failed attempt at killing them off. Insert plenty of bullets. Somehow, director Sylvain White takes that one sentence and spread it out for 96 minutes, through some slick editing and cinematography. It’s stylized, and nothing new, but gives the film some edge-I hate that word, but it does-that makes the film glide, when the plot is meandering from point A to B. To the film’s biggest boon, is the casting. While certainly not names (yet), the cast really keeps the film afloat. Jeffrey Dean Morgan (Watchmen) is good, Jason Patric is super slimy, but it’s Chris Evans (Fantastic Four) and Zoe Saldana (Avatar) that steal the film. Evans’ scenes are the best. He’s goofy, but yet not too-over-the-top for the film. Don’t stop believin’…Zoe is marvelous, yet again.

The Losers is based on a DC/Vertigo comic book series, which is DC’s grittier line of stories. Oddly, the film ducks away from violence, even though bullets fly by and into people. I doubt the R-rating would have added much. Even though I really enjoyed the banter between the characters, the tongue-in-cheek swagger, the editing, when you see the opening montage, then the limp sequel-ready ending, it’s an unneeded bad taste in our mouths. This reveals that the whole thing was a little stale from the beginning. A little bit more punch and The Losers would’ve been a winner.

But it does have a cool bazooka moment, so I can’t be that hard on it.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars

“I do think we’re going into pre-production (on a Star Trek follow-up) starting this fall to start shooting early next year,”

The last time we heard from Zoe Saldana on the status of the film, Abrams himself dismissed what she said. However, Abrams did give a tentative release date for 2012, so there could be some truth to this. I would recommend taking this as a rumor for now since we’ve heard nothing from Robert Orci and Alex Kurtzman on the script.

“I bug J.J. on a regular basis and he just fobs me off,” he laughed. “But I saw Zoe Saldana recently and she reckons that it’s going to be soon. I would imagine it’ll be toward the end of the year, but I can’t guarantee it.”

We should know from past reports that Zoe Saldana isn’t the most credible  person when it comes to news on the Star Trek sequel. Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman are currently writing the script, so we may hear some news on that sooner or later. We know for sure that it won’t be Abrams’ next film, as he is already working on a secret project, a Cloverfield sequel and Mission Impossible: IV at the moment.

Simon Pegg can next be seen in Paul, opening on November 1, 2010.

The Losers is set to hit theaters on April 23, 2010.

A tale of double cross and revenge, centered upon the members of an elite U.S. Special Forces unit sent into the Bolivian jungle on a search and destroy mission. The team-Clay, Jensen, Roque, Pooch and Cougar -find themselves the target of a lethal betrayal instigated from inside by a powerful enemy known only as Max. Presumed dead, the group makes plans to even the score when they’re joined by the mysterious Aisha, a beautiful operative with her own agenda. Working together, they must remain deep undercover while tracking the heavily-guarded Max, a ruthless man bent on embroiling the world in a new high-tech global war.

The feature stars the talents of Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Zoe Saldana, Chris Evans, Idris Elba, Columbus Short and Jason Patric. The Losers comes out in theaters on April 23rd. Now check out the final poster from FSR.: